A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CABEIRI.
Usury and against Usurers, of which a Latin translation was published by J. Pontanus together with
Cabasilas' life of Christ. The Greek original of
this oration appeared at August. Vindel. 1595 by
D. Hoeschel, and was afterwards published in a
more correct form, together with the oration of
Epiphanius on the burial of Christ, by S. Simonides, Samoscii, 1604, 4to. The many other orations and theological works of Nicolaus Cabasilas,
which have not yet been printed, are enumerated
in Fabric. Bibl. Graec. x. p. 25. &c.; comp. Wharton's Appendix to Cave's Ilist. Lit. i. p. 44. ed. London. [L. S.]
CABEIRI (KdaEipoi), mystic divinities who occur in various parts of the ancient world. The
obscurity that hangs over them, and the contradictions respecting them in the accounts of the ancients themselves, have opened a wide field for
speculation to modern writers on mythology, each
of whom has been tempted to propound a theory
of his own. The meaning of the name Cabeiri is
quite uncertain, and has been traced to nearly all
the languages of the East, and even to those of the
North; but one etymology seems as plausible as
anotheI, and etymology in this instance is a real
ignis fatuus to the inquirer. The character and
nature of the Cabeiri are as obscure as the meaning
of their name. All that we can attempt to do
here is to trace and explain the various opinions of
the ancients themselves, as they are presented to
us in chronological succession. We chiefly follow
Lobeck, who has collected all the passages of the
ancients upon this subject, and who appears to us
the most sober among those who have written
upon it. (Aylaopham. pp. 1202-1281.)
The earliest mention of the Cabeiri, so far as we
know, was in a drama of Aeschylus, entitled Ka~G&poL, in which the poet brought them into contact with the Argonauts in Lemnos. The Cabeiri
promised the Argonauts plenty of Lemnian wine.
(Plut. Sympos. ii. 1; Pollux, vi. 23; Bekker,
Anecd. p. 115.) The opinion of Welcker (Die
Aeschyl. Trilog. p. 236), who infers from Dionysius
(i. 68, &c.) that the Cabeiri had been spoken of by
Arctinus, has been satisfactorily refuted by Lobeck
and others. From the passage of Aeschylus here
alluded to, it appears that he regarded the Cabeiri
as original Lemnian divinities, who had power
over everything that contributed to the good of the
inhabitants, and especially over the vineyards.
The fruits of the field, too, seem to have been under
their protection, for the Pelasgians once in a time
of scarcity made vows to Zeus, Apollo, and the
Cabeiri. (Myrsilus, ap. Dionys. i. 23.) Strabo
in his discussion about the Curetes, Dactyls, &c.
(x. p. 466), speaks of the origin of the Cabeiri,
deriving his statements from ancient authorities,
and from him we learn; that Acusilaus called Camillus a son of Cabeiro and Hephaestus, and that
he made the three Cabeiri the sons, and the Cabeirian nymphs the daughters, of Camillus. According to Pherecydes, Apollo and Rhytia were
the parents of the nine Corybantes who dwelled in
Samothrace, and the three Cabeiri and the three
Cabeirian nymphs were the children of Cabeira,
the daughter of Proteus, by Hephaestus. Sacrifices
were offered to the Corybantes as well as the
Cabeiri in Lemnos and Imbros, and also in the
towns of Troas. The Greek logographers, and perhaps Aeschylus too, thus considered the Cabeiri as
the grandchildren of Proteus and as the sons of

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CABEIRI. 521
Hephaestus, and consequently as inferior in dignity
to the great gods on account of their origin. Their
inferiority is also implied in their jocose conversation with the Argonauts, and their being repeatedly
mentioned along with the Curetes, Dactyls, Corybantes, and other beings of inferior rank. Herodotus (iii. 37) says, that the Cabeiri were worshipped
at Memphis as the sons of Hephaestus, and that
they resembled the Phoenician dwarf-gods (IIarai'col) whom the Phoenicians fixed on the prows
of their ships. As the Dioscuri were then yet
unknown to the Egyptians (Herod. ii. 51), the
Cabeiri cannot have been identified with them at
that time. Herodotus proceeds to say, " the Athenians received their phallic Hermae from the
Pelasgians, and those who are initiated in the
mysteries of the Cabeiri will understand what I
am saying; for the Pelasgians formerly inhabited
Samothrace, and it is from them that the Samothracians received their orgies. But the Samothracians had a sacred legend about Hermes, which is
explained in their mysteries." This sacred legend
is perhaps no other than the one spoken of by
Cicero (De Nat. Deor. iii. 22), that Hermes was
the son of Coelus and Dies, and that Proserpine
desired to embrace him. The same is perhaps
alluded to by Propertius (ii. 2. 11), when he says,
that Mercury (Hermes) had connexions with Brimo,
who is probably the goddess of Pherae worshipped
at Athens, Sicyon, and Argos, whom some identified with Proserpine (Persephone), and others with
Hecate or Artemis. (Spanh. ad Callim. hymn. in
Dian. 259.) We generally find this goddess worshipped in places which had the worship of the
Cabeiri, and a Lemnian Artemis is mentioned by
Galen. (De Medic. Simpl. ix. 2. p. 246, ed.
Chart.) The Tyrrhenians, too, are said to have
taken away the statue of Artemis at Brauron, and
to have carried it to Lemnos. Aristophanes, in
his " Lemnian Women," had mentioned Bendis
along with the Brauronian Artemis and the great
goddess, and Nonnus (Dionys. xxx. 45) states that
the Cabeirus Alcon brandished 'EicaTes taoC,'sa
srvpo'v, so that we may draw the conclusion, that
the Samothracians and Lemnians worshipped a
goddess akin to Hecate, Artemis, Bendis, or Persephone, who had some sexual connexion with
Hermes, which revelation was made in the mysteries of Samothrace.
The writer next to Herodotus, who speaks about
the Cabeiri, and whose statements we possess in
Strabo (p. 472), though brief and obscure, is
Stesimbrotus. The meaning of the passage in
Strabo is, according to Lobeck, as follows: Some
persons think that the Corybantes are the sons of
Cronos, others that they are the sons of Zeus and
Calliope, that they (the Corybantes) went to Samothrace and were the same as the beings who
were there called Cabeiri. But as the doings of
the Corybantes are generally known, whereas nothing is known of the Samothracian Corybantes,
those persons are obliged to have recourse to saying,
that the doings of the latter Corybantes are kept
secret or are mystic. This opinion, however, is
contested by Demetrius, who states, that nothing
was revealed in the mysteries either of the deeds
of the Cabeiri or of their having accompanied Rhea
or of their having brought up Zeus and Dionysus.
Demetrius also mentions the opinion of Stesimbrotus, that the eIpd were performed in Samothrace
to the Cabeiri, who derived their name from mount